To deal with a projected $1 million shortfall in the fiscal year 2027 public schools budget, the superintendent recommended cutting or reducing over a dozen staff positions and reducing other services.
In a March 4 presentation, Cohasset Public Schools Superintendent Sarah Shannon said that the district would receive a 4.99% increase over fiscal year 2026 in next year’s budget, but that maintaining level services would require an 8.82% increase.
“We're going to have less contingency funding; fewer supplies, materials, and instructional resources; minimal, if any, professional development, which leads to less movement towards our goals; larger but reasonable class sizes; and loss of support for administrators,” she said Feb. 25.
Salary expenses take up most of the schools’ budget, so there is “absolutely no other way” to close the gap besides reducing some positions, Shannon said.
“We have really great people in Cohasset,” she said. “And so every one of these reductions that is not a supply or something like that is a person that cares about our kids and is a person that we care about.”
Shannon had previously estimated that level services would require an 11.88% increase over fiscal year 2026, but was able to decrease that number by planning to offset costs with revolving accounts, she said.
With the current reduction proposal—which Shannon said could change in the coming months—all four schools will see increased class sizes and cut programming.
Computer science programming would be reduced at the middle and high schools, and AP Psychology may be removed as an elective. Both English and language arts and math class sizes would grow at the middle school.
Elementary specialists, which include staff for physical education, art, music and the library, would have their paid hours reduced to more accurately match their current teaching loads—meaning that they would perform the same hours of work for less pay next year.
Multiple assistant coaches would have their hours reduced. To accommodate that reduction, the schools plan to sunset multiple co-op teams, or athletic programs serving students from multiple schools, which means that current students can stay on the team but new students cannot enroll.
The schools will reduce to one pre-kindergarten classroom to save on the salary of a part-time education support professional based on a lower projected pre-K enrollment next year.
Besides staff cuts, the schools will provide little to no professional development, purchase fewer classroom supplies and cut contingency funding that replaces technology.
Shannon stated in a previous meeting that it is too late to seek a Proposition 2½ override for fiscal year 2027 to allow for greater school budget increases.
Invest in Cohasset, a community group whose mission is to “support a fiscally responsible and sustainable funding plan” for the town and schools, claimed that Cohasset is in the 30th percentile for teacher-student ratio in Massachusetts despite the town ranking in the 90th percentile in revenue per capita.
“One would expect that if Cohasset is in the top 10% of revenue per capita, the town should also be at or near the top 10% in school spending, yet Cohasset is at the 43rd percentile,” said Invest in Cohasset member Will Ashton in a letter to the select board, advisory committee and school committee.
With the 4.99% budget increase, Cohasset would spend $18,822 per student in fiscal year 2027 if enrollment does not change from 2026. The average total expenditure per student in Massachusetts in fiscal year 2024 was $22,414.
“As much as we have limited these cuts, I think they are going to cause a substantial amount of harm to the district, to students, to community members, and to staff members,” School Committee Member Jacob Squatrito said.
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